If we can go thus far, we are constrained to go a step farther. For in the Christ is the consum- mation, the summing up, of humanity. He is the Pepresentative Man. And in the Chri.st, too, is the fulfilment of Israel's high de.stiny as the Servant of Jehovah, the Messenger and Ambassador of the Most High. It is not surprising, then, that He should claim to be the Revealer of the Godhead, in a sense and after a manner unexampled else- where. He, too, is the Elect, the Beloved. There is a coherence in the NT account of Christ the Kevealer which demands for it a reverent hearing from every thoughtful man, no matter what his belief about historical Christianity may be. We do not assume any breach in the continuity of nature when we hold that a revelation of God may be perceived in man which cannot be perceived in the lower creatures. We do not make hi.story dis- continuous if we hold that a revelation of God may be perceived in the record of His dealings with Israel which cannot be perceived in the record of His dealings with Greece, although He is the Supreme Arbiter of the destinies of Israel and Greece alike. To the creature and to the nation
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REVELATION, BOOK OF
uniquely fitted to receive and to reflect a Divine revelation, it has been given, in divers portions and manners, according to the need and the capacity of the recipient. But the Christ stands alone, in nature and in history, the flower of humanity and the culmination of Israel's hope — alone, for God has become man in Him. There can be no inter- ruption or faltering in the communion between the Perfect Man and God, for He is perfect because He shares the Divine nature itself. The revelation is no longer occasional, but permanent ; no longer a gradual unveiling, but the full disclosure of the Father's face ; no longer to be conceived as for one race only, for ' this is the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest — made known to all nations for the obedience of faith ' (Ro IG-'sf- ; cf . 1 Co 2').
LiTEEATiTRE. — Cremer, Bib.-Theol. Lex., s.v. djroKaAvi|(t? " Kaftan, Doginatik,%i\ Martensen, Chr. Dogm. p. 5ff. ; Euald' JRev.: Its Nat. and, Jiecord; Fairbairn, Christ in Mod. Theol- p. 493 ff. ; Flint, TheUm, Lect. x. ; Luthardt, Fund. Truths f Chty., Lect. vii. ; R. H. Hutton, ' Revelation ' in Theol. Kscai/n ; Newman, Oxford Univ. Serm. ii. ; Dale, Ephexians, Lect. viii. ; PRE^, art. ' Otfenbarung ' : G. P. Fisher, Nature and Method of Revelation ; C. Harris, Pro Fide, 274 ; Sabatier, Outlines of a Phil, of Pel., bk. i. eh. 2 ; Bruce, Apologetics. 298 ; Christlieb, Mod. Doubt, Lect. ii. ; A. J. Balfour, Foundationx of Belief ; W. Sunday, Inspiration; lUing-worth, Peasoji, and Revelation ; W. Morgan, 'Faith and Revelation' in ExpT ix. (189S) 485, 537; M. Dods, The Bible, its Origin and Nature, 61.
J. H. BERNARD.
REVELATION, BOOK OF. — Whatever per- plexities may still attend the interpretation of the Apocalypse, there can be no question as to the place which it assigns to Jesus Christ, or the copiousness and variety of the references which the writer makes to His Person and His work. For him the fact of Christ conditions the whole of human history. He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (13^), and He is the Bridegroom-Judge, whose eagerly expected coming will bring to a close the history of the world that now is. , And what is true of the world's history is also true of the book itself ; its whole contents are a ' revelation ' (Apocalypse) of Jesus Christ (P), a revelation which proceeds from Him, and is mediated ' by his angel ' to ' his servant John.'
It will be convenient to examine the references and the doctrine which lies behind them in the order of our Lord's experience, beginning with His life on earth. In the first place, it is noteworthy that the human name Jesus, borne by Christ when He was on earth, which is rare in tlie writings of St. Paul and absent from those of St. Peter, occurs here nine (or ten) times. The martyrs are 'the witnesses of Jesus' (IT^) ; their witness is 'the testimony of Jesus' (li etc.); and it is by this simple human name that the Divine Speaker describes Himself (22i6). In this usage we may see an indication of authorship by one who had 'known Christ after the flesh,' to whom the name He had then borne was both familiar and dear. If authoritative criticism no longer permits us to see direct allusions to either the birth or the ascension of Jesus in the story of the ' man-child ' contained in ch. 12, His death by crucifixion is very pointedly alluded to as an historical fact (11^), His victory in 3-i ('as I also overcame '), and His resurrection in l^-is. His twelve Apostles find mention in 21^*, and there are echoes of His teaching as recorded in the Gospels in S^-i" 7^'' 21^ and 2123.
These recollections of Jesus of Nazareth have not been obliterated by the vision of the exalted Christ ; rather are the two elements held together in a singular harmony of conviction. Passing to the second, we find that the richness of the con- ception of Christ which marks the Apocalypse may be gauged by the variety and significance of the aspects in which He is presented — the Word,